Those who know about how spirituality plays into the world of drug smuggling have likely heard of Santa Muerte, Jesus Malverde, and Santer but the details of the more obscure African religions and Latin American folk saints and cults often remain a mystery. While the vast majority of these religions are practiced by law-abiding citizens with no co

Those who know about how spirituality plays into the world of drug smuggling have likely heard of Santa Muerte, Jesus Malverde, and Santer but the details of the more obscure African religions and Latin American folk saints and cults often remain a mystery. While the vast majority of these religions are practiced by law-abiding citizens with no co

The fifth Small Wars Journal—El Centro anthology spans online journal and blog writings for all of 2015 with a thematic focus on narcoterrorism and impunity in the Americas. This anthology is composed of an About SWJ and Foundation section; a memoriam to our friend and colleague, George W. Grayson; an acronym listing; a foreword; an introduction; twenty-eight chapters; a postscript; anthology notes; and notes on its twenty-three academic, governmental, and professional contributors.

In 2006, Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced the "war on drugs," an ongoing, low-intensity, asymmetrical war between the government and various drug cartels that has proven the bloodiest conflict since the Mexican civil war a century ago. Meanwhile, the subculture of narco-cultura continues to grow, under the influence of powerful drug cartels throughout Mexico. The narco-cultura has its own dynamic form of dress, music, literature, film, religious beliefs and practices, and slang, which have become standard in some parts of the country, especially among the lower class and uneducated. This thesis investigates the relationship between the narco-cultura and organized crime in Mexico, as viewed from multiple perspectives. It considers this subculture's historical origins and its influence on popular religion and narco-corridos (ballads). More precisely, this thesis explores how the narco-cultura appropriates religion and religious symbolism to maintain the growth of organized criminal groups. CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION * A. MAJOR RESEARCH QUESTION * B. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH QUESTION * C. LITERATURE REVIEW * D. POTENTIAL EXPLANATIONS AND HYPOTHESES * E. RESEARCH DESIGN * F. THESIS OVERVIEW * CHAPTER II - UNDERSTANDING LA FAMILIA MICHOACANA AND LOS CABALLEROS TEMPLARIOS, AND THEIR RELIGIOUS CULTS * A. THE EVOLUTION OF LA FAMILIA MICHOACANA AND LOS CABALLEROS TEMPLARIOS * 1. Historical Background * 2. La Familia Michoacana: Background, Leadership, and Enforced Silence * 3. The Provision of Services and the "Us versus Them" Divide * 4. Economic, Social and Cultural Context: Understanding Complexities * B. LA FAMILIA MICHOACANA AND LOS CABALLEROS TEMPLARIOS AS RELIGIOUS CULTS * 1. La Familia's Quasi-Religious Cult and its Religious Justification * 2. Los Caballeros Templarios' Code of Conduct * 3. Los Caballeros Templarios: Narco-Apostol (Apostle) * C. CONCLUSION * CHAPTER III - THE SINALOA CARTEL'S USE OF NARCO-CORRIDOS AND EMBRACE OF JESUS MALVERDE * A. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND * 1. Post-Revolution Corridos and Drug-trafficking Origins * 2. The 1930s: Corridos and Drug Contraband * 3. The 1940s: Drug-trafficking Evolution and the Popularity of Musica Nortena * 4. The 1950s-60s: Corrido Deterioration and Drug-smuggling Fight * 5. Narco-Corridos and the Birth of the Narco-Cultura * 6. The Strengthening of the Narco-Cultura * 7. Last Decade and a Dash: Narco-Corridos and the Narco-Cultura * B. SINALOA CARTEL: NARCO-CORRIDOS AND JESUS MALVERDE * 1. Narco-Corridos as a Recruiting Tool * 2. Sinaloa: The Tale of Jesus Malverde * a. A Fantasy, but Real * b. The Malverde Cult * c. Songs to the Narco-Santon (Narco-Saint) * C. CONCLUSION * CHAPTER IV - MEXICO'S "UNOFFICIAL SAINTS" * A. NARCO-SAINTS: BACKGROUND * 1. The Creation of Images * 2. The Making of Saints * 3. Religious Syncretism: A Fusion of Beliefs * B. RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM IN THE NARCO-CULTURA * 1. La Santa Muerte: Mexico's Idol, Symbol, and Social Force and Aspects * 2. Juan Soldado * a. Historical Context * b. The Legendary Protector of Migrants * C. CONCLUSION * LIST OF REFERENCES * FOOTNOTES

Contemporary popular culture is riddled with references to Mexican drug cartels, narcos, and drug trafficking. In the United States, documentary filmmakers, journalists, academics, and politicians have taken note of the increasing threats to our security coming from a subculture that appears to feed on murder and brutality while being fed by a romanticism about power and capital. Carlos Alberto Sánchez uses Mexican narco-culture as a point of departure for thinking about the nature and limits of violence, culture, and personhood. A Sense of Brutality argues that violent cultural modalities, of which narco-culture is but one, call into question our understanding of “violence” as a concept. The reality of narco-violence suggests that “violence” itself is insufficient to capture it, that we need to redeploy and reconceptualize “brutality” as a concept that better captures this reality. Brutality is more than violence, other to cruelty, and distinct from horror and terror—all concepts that are normally used interchangeably with brutality, but which, as the analysis suggests, ought not to be. In narco-culture, the normalization of brutality into everyday life is a condition upon which the absolute erasure or derealization of people is made possible. "The study is original, bringing a wide range of voices into dialogue to present a problem that is pressing and deserving of careful analysis. The study will contribute to the field of Latin American philosophy in important ways... This is the only book by a philosopher on the topic of narco-culture, and I think it’s an important contribution to a topic that should be addressed by philosophers." —Elizabeth Millán, DePaul University

Through political and cultural analysis of representations of the so-called war on drugs, Oswaldo Zavala makes the case that the very terms we use to describe drug traffickers are a constructed subterfuge for the real narcos: politicians, corporations, and the military. Though Donald Trump's incendiary comments and monstrous policies on the border revealed the character of a deeply depraved leader, state violence on both sides of the border is nothing new. Immigration has endured as a prevailing news topic, but it is a fixture of modern society in the neoliberal era; the future will be one of exile brought on by state violence and the plundering of our natural resources to sate capitalist greed. Yet the realities of violence in Mexico and along the border are obscured by the books, films, and TV series we consume. In truth, works like Sicario, The Queen of the South, and Narcos hide Mexico's political realities. Alongside these examples, Zavala discusses Charles Bowden, 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, and other important Latin American writers as examples of those who do capture the realities of the drug war. Translated into English by William Savinar, Drug Cartels Do Not Exist will be useful for journalists, political scientists, philosophers, and writers of any kind who wish to break down the constructed barriers—physical and mental—created by those in power around the reality of the Mexican drug trade.

The White Sister... The Bony Lady... The Godmother... The Pretty Girl... This is Santa Muerte, personification of death. A veiled skeleton with an unquenchable thirst for destruction, Santa Muerte is Mexico’s grim and vengeful goddess. She is worshipped by outcasts and sinners, those for whom the traditional Christian deities of Jesus and the Virgin Mary have no place. For the notorious drug cartels, Santa Muerte is venerated as the saint who does not judge. She provides divine protection against authority and from rival gangs, demanding human sacrifice in return. The cult of Santa Muerte has become inextricably linked to the Mexican cartels over the past decade, resulting in barbaric rituals that have escalated the tide of violence across the streets. Bodies of cartel members are executed en masse at Santa Muerte shrines, and rumors abound of even worse atrocities in the name of magical protection. This book is the story of unholy alliance, of drug gangs and Santa Muerte, and a galvanic passion for blood and death.